Nearly two months ago, a young Mike Brown was shot eight times in Ferguson by Darren Wilson. I feel it important to mention that Mike Brown was a black man, if you're unaware of the case you may wonder why I would bother to mention that but my reasoning is this: it is undecided as to whether Darren Wilson will be arrested because, whilst everyone knows who Mike Brown's murderer is, certain people are puzzled as to whether the life of a black man is worth enough to punish a murderer.
I mean hey, it's not like black people should be treated equally to white people is it?
The reasoning behind this post being called 'If I can dream' is because this song that was sung by Elvis Presley really reminds me of what's going in America racially. Trayvon Martin was killed over two years ago and whilst that sparked the attention of the media and a lot of the population, and it also resulted in the arrest of George Zimmerman, I feel the death of Mike Brown shows that things haven't changed.
This song has always had resonance within me because it's a song that my parents sing a lot (we have an amateur recording studio in our house guys it's pretty cool) but it was whilst walking home from school about a week ago that I listened this song and just realised how we haven't come far enough since Elvis sang this song in 1968 after the death of Martin Luther King, I found myself crying on the way home because of this because I have been very interested in the Mike Brown case and it upsets me regardless but this made me even more upset. Then today, I decided to attempt to play it on the piano and I couldn't get through it without images of Mike Brown flooding into my head, I was initially planning to upload a clip of me playing a snippet of the song for Instagram and then just have a little rant telling people not to forget Ferguson, but I realised I have too much to say for a simple Instagram post.
This issue just angers me so much. Mike Brown did nothing to aggravate Darren Wilson, he had his hands up, Darren Wilson just decided to stop him in the middle of street and shoot. Similarly to Trayvon Martin, all he did was buy a packet of skittles and wear a hoody. Black people are the oppressed and it has been that way for far too long.
Why is it that a black person cannot leave their house for fear of being murdered? I feel I am quite fortunate because firstly in the UK we don't have the right to bear arms so it's less likely you'll be shot, but I know for a fact there is just as much racism and sexism in the police force here as I've had relatives who have been in the police force.
I suppose all I want to say in this post is please don't forget Ferguson. That's what the police want, that's what Darren Wilson wants. If you forget Ferguson, if you don't show your support either through donation or through just mentioning it on social networks, you are helping to keep them in the position of power which allowed them to do this in the first place. If you need any more persuading to keep talking about Ferguson, here it is:
"Mike Brown was a kid who didn’t want to play football, even though he had the body for it. When asked why, he told his friends that he didn’t want to hit anybody.
This is the child that they’re going to paint as a thug."
Thanks for reading, I hope I haven't scared you all off with my angriness but I can't take it any more.
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